Spectacular Trio of Leonid Meteors Captured On WYZE V3 Cam Single Motion Event

Got 6 V3 cameras arriving on the 1st of December. Can’t wait. Glad I waited. Almost got the outdoor one but this is what I’ve been waiting for since V1

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Do you think I can catch the same with the “Wyze Cam Outdoor”?
I don’t have a clear sight of open sky from my house. I would have to set the camera pretty far away to get an open sky.
I love your captures. Thank you for sharing.
JQ

@JonQ, I actually had both the V3 and the WCO out at the same time. While the V3 was all that I hoped it would the be. The WCO saw a few of the brightest stars, but did not pick up any meteors that I could see. It probably would not have activated the record in time anyway. The meteors rarely lasted more than 1 second.

To be honest, the V3 didn’t record any motion events either. But I really didn’t go through them all. I just pulled the SD card and copied everything to my laptop and watched all 3600 1 minutes files manually. And I’m pretty sure @todwatts did the same.

@todwatts, how did your star gazing go? I collected videos from the night of 11/15 to the morning of 11/20. (There was 1 night/morning that I didn’t catch.) So let’s compare notes (my answers follow each question):
A. How many meteors did you catch? (42)
B. What was the earliest in the night did you see a meteor? (10:09pm)
C. What was the latest in the morning? (05:50am)
D. What was the most you caught in a single 1 minute clip? (2, twice)
E. Which single day produced the most viewings? (11/16/20 - 23 total)
F. What other “flying objects” did you see? (Lots of aircraft, a couple of satellites, I think, and a couple of light flashes that I cannot explain)
G. Are you going to try to catch the Northern Lights this winter? (YES)

For me, things really tapered off quickly and the last couple of nights have been cloud covered and rainy. So, I think I’m done until I hear of another possible event.

Oh, by the way, you said you were in central Illinois. Are you anywhere near Maroa? That’s my wife’s home town. She had family in Springfield.

Hey guys,
Any other setting suggestions besides:

  1. Sensitivity to max to capture video events
  2. EVENT RECORDING toggled on
  3. NIGHT VISION “On
  4. NIGHT VISION IR LIGHTS “Off”
  5. CAMERA STATUS LIGHT toggled “Off”
  6. CONTINUOUS LOCAL RECORDING to an SD card toggled on
    Thanks,
    JQ
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Hi, Like MVB, I, too, put a WCO next to my V3. The WCO caught the brightest stars, but really didn’t have the ability to capture much else.

The V3, at $19.99, is absolutely mind boggling in its ability to capture the stars with its Starlight Sensor.

Do you have a heavy duty, outdoor extension cord? You could plug in your V3 into an extension cord (or several extension cords) … to the outer reaches of your wifi signal (which would also limited your WCO connection)(Unless you use TRAVEL mode).

Take care to protect the connection between the power cord and the V3 plug … easy to do with electrical tape and then wrap in aluminum foil or plastic bag.

Hope this helps.

Luv it JonQ! That’s how I set up my V3 to capture the sky.

There are a couple of things:
1, Make sure motion zone only covers open sky, Trees will generate motion events.
2. Be aware of nearby streets and aim away from them. Point straight up if needed. I was catching reflected headlights and that caused some motion events.
3, Place the camera high enough to be out of light coming from the house. I used a 16 foot extension pole and raised the camera 5 feet above my rain gutters.

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@JonQ: another way to power the V3 is a 16 foot USB cord plugged into an outdoor rated electrical box. I had an extra one and it worked fine too.

Mike, to be honest, I haven’t gone through all continuous recording one minute videos on the SD card. I’m probably 3/4 the way through them. I got off on tangents that took my interests elsewhere. I’ll get through them eventually. I promise!

I’m also not as precise in my record keeping as you. My process was to copy all the Continuous Recording Daily Records from SD card to my laptop. Then scroll through each minute. In the beginning, I would be careful in copying each meteor into a save folder.

Then I got lazy. If I saw a meteor on 20201117/19/34.mp4, I’d just drag the “34.mp4” into my save folder. The problem with that method, is more than once, the 34.mp4 file overwrote another 34.mp4 file from 20201116/18/34.mp4. The file names, 34.mp4 were the same. And yes, I had long ago turned off the “nag” that warns “are you sure?.”

But I have 25 captures currently copied to a save folder. A few more impressive than others. I would say the majority were 9 p.m. to dawn, but can’t say for sure that I didn’t capture a couple earlier in the evening. 11/16 was the most productive for me also, even though the peak was the 17th.

Two of my meteor captures actually triggered Motion Event videos on my V3. The rest were found by hunting and pecking through the files on the SD card.

Also lots of planes and satellites. I thought I nailed the ISS, based on historical tracking timing and position, but my hopes were later crushed by some mean maven who gave me a lecture and an after school detention (I’m joking!).

I caught and ignored dozens of “little” streaks of light … “little” meaning “now you see it, now you don’t” straight streaks, which on my Windows 10 machine only appeared to be a quarter to a half inch long. Those were probably meteors, or space junk. But I wasn’t interested in keeping.

I did capture one “unknown” which I’m going to post at a later date. I’m thinking a lighted V-Shaped UFO Mothership. But more on that later.

The Northern Lights are extremely rare here in Central Illinois. Not saying it’s not possible, but I doubt I’m going to try.

I really want to nail the International Space Station, but it looks like early December is going to be the best possible timing, with the brightest, closest pass over my area.

I’m also going to be all over the Saturn/Jupiter Conjunction event around Dec. 21 … and may even dedicate all my V3s to be pointed straight up into the dark skies.

And it’s important to remember that the LEONID METEOR SHOWER is an annual event. So I’m already thinking about how to approach the task next year!

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The Geminids are next month so you may get a chance again soon :slight_smile:

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A W E - :comet: N S P :comet: R :comet: N G !

I’m amazed with you @todwatts that it could trigger an event in the night sky.

I have your settings in my notes for future reference - TY (and @Bam of course).

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Oh wow! We need you to post this info in it’s own topic under “ask the community.” So folks can post what they capture under that thread! I appreciate you telling me about it. To be honest, I don’t think I ever looked up at the stars at night … now I’m obsessed with doing it with my V3. Thanks!

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This is the best triggered motion event that the V3 captured

I had CamPlus activated in the V3

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I found a place outside my window that will allow me to run the cord inside. I will read up on how to set the motion zone.
I can’t wait to receive my v3 Cam. :grinning:

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I just saw the News video for this posted on Wyze’s Instagram :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the head’s up. I wasn’t told about that!

If that doesn’t make @UserCustomerGwen send me some Wyze swag, I don’t know what will. Come on, @UserCustomerGwen, what’s it going to take? We are entering the season of giving … not keeping! Get some of that dusty old stuff off your shelves. Especially that snappy white “Wyze” thermos mug featured on the Wyze day long Career Day event! I’m going to hold my breath until I get one of those. Snag me the one off the desk of @WyzeDave!

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Tod, have you no shame? :grinning: But, if you get something, let me know and I’ll be just as shameless. LOL

Naw, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Ask my wife. I beg like a dog!

Of course, our dog doesn’t get a treat every time he begs. But, hey, he still tries … and I admire that!

Besides I really, really, really want one of the white Wyze Tumblers that @WyzeDave flashed during Career Days! I think I was the only one who noticed that!

If I got one, that means I wouldn’t go through so many Red Solo cups. Better for the environment. And I know that @UserCustomerGwen really cares about the environment.

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Yikes! :rofl: